Chapter 1435 — Red Dust Becomes the Dao Path
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 5
She had been born in a lotus within the great abyss of Guixu, in quiet and in beauty. But when had all of this begun to change? Was it when the Creator discovered her, a Dao-born ancient god, and felt her power of birth and nurture, and so worshiped her and prayed for her protection, that their race might be fruitful and multiply?
Was it when the Creator sought to use her power to uproot its rivals?
Was it when Taichu met her and the two came to love each other? Or was it when she herself felt the worship of the Creator, the worship of all living beings, and savored power and desire?
Only she had not the Taiji ancient gods' high awakening; she never recognized this in herself, and so sank down into the red dust.
What Shen Mu thought of was something else.
He felt that the Taiji ancient gods' way — tempering the heart of Dao in the red dust — was indeed a workable path.
After all, he too had struggled and rolled through the mortal world, growing little by little; his heart of Dao had grown along the way, and his Dao realm had risen step by step with it. Then he thought of another matter: Lan Yutian.
The Heavenly Venerable Yu of old had been troubled by the trifling affairs of the red dust, and so his heart of Dao was less pure than Lan Yutian's; while the Lan Yutian of today, though he walks within the red dust, is more like an egg-born ancient god from before the birth of living beings — without thoughts of gain, without desire for power, without those troubling thoughts, with nothing left but a heart of Dao pure beyond compare.
Compared with the other egg-born ancient gods, all save Taiyi, he was more like an egg-born ancient god, silently drawing sustenance from the vast mining ground that is the red dust, raising himself higher.
He was the one closest to attaining the Dao.
And within Shen Mu's Primordial Fetus Divine Treasury, the Taishi in the egg had his own insight as well; unknowingly he stopped drawing power from the Taishi primal stone and the Taishi lode, and quietly pondered the road he would take.
"The Taiji ancient gods took form after me, and yet their understanding of the Dao already stands above mine.
" He could not help sighing, feeling that he had gained much: "Her Majesty the Empress has seized my Taishi mining ground. Even if I take it back through Mu Heavenly Venerable's hand and absorb the whole of the mining ground's power, I still cannot reach perfection, cannot attain the Dao, cannot transcend. I too must walk a circuit through the mortal world and temper my heart of Dao, as the Taiji ancient gods have done; only then may I reach the level of our brother Taiyi.
" Each had gained something; each had come to an understanding — only what each understood was not the same.
The Taiji ancient god in the egg said, "This time we invited Her Majesty to come because our own power is not enough to break open the divine egg. We ask Her Majesty to lend us her aid. " The Empress rose to her feet.
"It is only fitting that I help," she said gravely. Shen Mu also rose to his feet.
"Daoist brothers within the egg," he said gravely, "once you have emerged, how will you treat me?
I wish to know where the two of you stand. " The Empress looked toward him; a flash of killing intent crossed her lovely eyes.
"Mu Heavenly Venerable, you and we Ten Heavenly Venerables are grasshoppers strung on the same rope.
You would do well to recognize your own weight and set your position right, and harbor no excessive notions. Otherwise you will only invite a fatal calamity. Guixu is one of the few places in all the world that can erase you, and the Guixu Great Dao is one of the few Daos that can break the art of Material Immutability! " Shen Mu laughed heartily, killing intent boiling around him: "If in days to come the two Daoist brothers mean to make an enemy of me, then today I will stake my life and fight to the death!
Think it over, you two!